Best PlacesPort St. Lucie, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Port St. Lucie metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by JonathanPuello, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Port St. Lucie ranks 281st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 15 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in disaster risk, summer heat, and an overheated housing market.
The best neighborhoods in the Port St. Lucie metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Port St. Lucie
The towns and districts of the Port St. Lucie metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Stuart, Palm City & Hobe Sound
Crime runs lower, more adults hold degrees, and health care is easier to reach.
Downtown Port St. Lucie
Fewer homes sit empty and local pay stretches further.
Indian River Estates
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Indiantown
Heat risk is lower, though fewer residents vote.
Lakewood Park
Prices have run up less and homes cost less.
Hutchinson Island South
Incomes run lower.
Fort Pierce
Streets are more walkable, though health outcomes score lower.
Port St. Lucie shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 8%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Port St. Lucie's strengths and weaknesses
Port St. Lucie lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Low taxes and a strong job market follow.
The one real hole is disaster risk, near the bottom of the country. Summer heat and an overheated housing market also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Port St. Lucie ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 77% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 75% of metro areas
Where Port St. Lucie ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Short commute29.0 minutes each way, better than only 7% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Port St. Lucie
A household needs to earn about $101,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Port St. Lucie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $79,773, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Port St. Lucie's effective rate of 0.85%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Port St. Lucie
Port St. Lucie runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Port St. Lucie.
Who works in Port St. Lucie, and how
Work in Port St. Lucie centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Port St. Lucie
Port St. Lucie has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 15 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Port St. Lucie and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Port St. Lucie growing, and who is moving in?
Port St. Lucie has grown about 26% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Miami, FL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Port St. Lucie go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Port St. Lucie, month by month
Port St. Lucie sees roughly 113 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 74, with lows near 58. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 74° | 66° | 58° |
| April | 83° | 76° | 69° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 77° |
| October | 85° | 79° | 74° |
Flying in and out of Port St. Lucie
The nearest airport, Vero Beach Regional, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Palm Beach International, about 45 miles away.
The best schools in and around Port St. Lucie
Schools across Port St. Lucie average a B, better than 74% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Fau/slcsd Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ TraditioA · 71% proficient
- Morningside Elementary SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Citrus Grove ElementaryA · 66% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hidden Oaks Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Southport Middle SchoolB+ · 47% proficient
- Southern Oaks Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Somerset College Preparatory AcademyA− · 62% proficient
- South Fork High SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Treasure Coast High SchoolB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Port St. Lucie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Port St. Lucie measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Port St. Lucie against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Port St. Lucie suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Port St. Lucie
Is Port St. Lucie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Port St. Lucie ranks 281st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and a strong job market, and lowest on disaster risk and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Port St. Lucie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $383,748. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $79,773 median income, cost of living beats 54% of metro areas.
Is Port St. Lucie safe?
Yes, Port St. Lucie is safer than 77% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $183 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Port St. Lucie?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 74 with lows near 58. That works out to about 113 pleasant days a year, more than 69% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Port St. Lucie?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Stuart, Palm City & Hobe Sound, Downtown Port St. Lucie, and Indian River Estates. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Port St. Lucie good for families?
Schools beat 74% of metro areas, crime safety beats 77%, and childcare runs $949 a month.
Is Port St. Lucie good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 54% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 66% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Port St. Lucie with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Port St. Lucie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Port St. Lucie represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Port St. Lucie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Port St. Lucie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Port St. Lucie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Port St. Lucie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Port St. Lucie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Port St. Lucie detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.